


it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

by lovelyflowersinherhair



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23167492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyflowersinherhair/pseuds/lovelyflowersinherhair
Summary: The sanctification of Polly Cooper.Polly dies at the hands of her father, but she is equally culpable in her death. The town of Riverdale sanctifies the pretty blonde Vixen in spite of the fact that she was working in tandem with the Black Hood, much to Alice's non-amusement.That's not the only secret that Polly was hiding.
Relationships: Alice Cooper/FP Jones II, mentioned Hal Cooper/Alice Cooper, mentioned Polly Cooper/Archie Andrews, mentioned Polly Cooper/Jason Blossom
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> This is very AU.

“Alice, wait,” FP commanded, the words leaving his mouth almost of their own volition, and he forced himself to follow through. “What happened between us -- that wasn’t a mistake.”

Alice had stopped with her hand on the door’s handle, and she turned to look at him, her features twisted in an expression that the average person would have mistaken for revulsion, but that FP recognized as hurt. He hadn’t meant to hurt her when he’d told her that he couldn’t go to the play because he was working -- he had genuinely meant that he had a shift that he had to work, and he hadn’t expected that saying so would have upset Alice, but it was clear to him that he had. 

He stepped out from behind the counter, determined to at least explain the rationalization behind his words.

Alice spoke. “Do you mean that?” She relinquished the death grip that she’d had on the door’s handle. “It wasn’t a mistake?” 

“Of course I do,” he said as he crossed the diner to where she stood, not wanting to have any sort of conversation with the empty diner between them. Alice could project her voice at the best of times, a fact that FP knew all too well. He didn’t think that Pop would be overly enthused at him if he tested her vocal range. “Can you…will you let me explain?”

She pursed her lips. “Fine,” she said. “Surely your explanations will leave less to be desired than those I’ve heard from my soon-to-be former husband, or that charlatan who pretended to be my ever so wonderful biological child.” Her tone had taken on a flat affect. “Harold is leaving me for Penelope Blossom,” she elaborated. “As for Chic...did Jughead tell you what happened the other day?” 

FP shook his head. “No,” he told her. “The boy doesn’t tell me much of anything at all, anymore.” He shrugged. “Why? What did the boy do?”

“Jughead and some of his Serpent friends, they saved my life,” she said, in a tone that FP would have considered fit for discussing the weather, and not for the delightful tale that Alice had begun to divulge. “My life and that of Elizabeth’s,” she added, an additional detail that didn’t fill him with joy. “I thought, maybe, that he’d told you.” 

“What happened, Alice?”    
  


“Nothing,” she said. “We’re fine. It doesn’t matter.”   
  


“Alice,” FP told her, his tone serious. “It does matter, and I am going to find out, whether it’s by you telling me now, or my Serpents telling me later.” He shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me the other day?” 

“I wanted to be with you,” she said in a whisper. “I didn’t want you to be angry with me for accidentally getting Jughead involved, I would have never wanted him -- or any of the Serpents -- to get hurt. Not that they were,” she added hastily. “But, it’s my fault. I was the one who let him into our lives...even though he looked nothing like I expected him to look.” She drew in a deep breath. “I can’t -- I can’t have this conversation with us standing in front of the door like this. What if someone overheard?”    
  


“We can sit down,” he offered. “Whatever you want.”   
  


“Yeah -- okay,” she said. “I -- would you mind making me a cup of tea? Herbal.”

“Yeah,” he said. “You make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.” 

FP watched as Alice did in fact settle herself down in a booth (he’d been afraid that she’d pull a runner the second that he’d walked away), and he kept an eagle eye on her as he prepared the tea. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Alice -- FP did, at least to a greater extent than he trusted others -- but the fact that she resembled a skittish deer and not the over-confident woman who’d taken delight in propositioning him in his trailer only a few days before didn’t exactly thrill him, and he didn’t want her to be scared away.

He shook his head. Whatever had happened to her had shaken her and he clearly hadn’t helped when he’d blown her off, even if he really hadn’t meant to. He was just trying to do the right thing for once in his life, and not screw up his chances at the job he’d been fortunate to get. It wasn’t as if anyone had been jumping the gun to hire him. Sure, Fred had extended that token, pity based, job offer, but he was working with the Lodges now, when he wasn’t running for Mayor, and neither of Fred’s latest personas really appealed to him.

Had he known that Hiram had purchased Pops, well, FP sure as hell wouldn’t have applied for the job. He’d just had the misfortune to find out after he’d started to work there.

That wasn’t what was important. Alice was.

He placed the tea in front of her, and slipped into the opposite side of the booth. “I hope it’s to your liking.”

Alice took a sip of the drink, before she started to speak. “Chic decided that an appropriate way to repay us for our hospitality was to bring that Darla woman and some of her thuggish compatriots to my house, where they proceded to bilk me out of several thousand dollars in order to get them to vacate my property,” she said, her tone dull. “They refused to leave until those boys showed up and scared the hell out of them.”

“What the  _ hell _ did Keller say?” 

“What are you talking about? I didn’t tell him,” Alice said. She took another sip of tea. FP simply gaped at her, unable to hide his shock. “What? I just don’t see the big deal. Like I said, your Serpents, they handled it. Elizabeth and I were fine.”

“You were the victims of an unarmed home invasion, Alice!” FP exclaimed. “It  _ was _ unarmed, right?” 

“Well, nobody had a gun,” she answered. “I can’t go to the Sheriff. Hal would find out.”

“So what if Hal finds out? He’s your husband, isn’t he? Shouldn’t he give a shit what happens to you?”

She offered up a bitter laugh. “You think Harold gives a damn about me? He coroced me into marrying him and he amazes me with the new ways he manages to ruin my life to this day, whether it’s by forcing me to give my child up for adoption to trying to cheat me out of my portion of his inheritance, and now he’s gone and sold his half of my paper to Hiram Lodge.” She shook her head. “Hal will just be upset that Chic and his creepy friends didn’t hurt me and Elizabeth.” 

FP forced himself to maintain his cool, and he reminded himself that he was at work. “He might not care about you, but you have to recognize that I do, Al. Betty does, and I don’t want you to be living in fear that Chic and his punkass friends come back and finish what they started. I know that he’s your son, and --”   
  


“He’s not my son,” she whispered. “Elizabeth had him tested, you know, when they had the will reading. I wasn’t surprised when he wasn’t Hal’s, but she was reading the results wrong. It turns out that Chic isn’t related to either of us, which makes sense when you realize that he looks like nothing like the boy who came by the house that time. I told him that I wasn’t interested -- I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to tell him that. Hal and the girls were in the house.”   
  


FP scrubbed a hand across his face. He wasn’t sure how to respond. “So, uh, you let him move in with you anyways, even though you knew there was a chance he wasn’t your son?”

“Elizabeth brought him home,” she said with a sigh. “He was hurt. I though that… I thought that, even if he wasn’t the baby that I gave up… if he had been, FP, I would have never forgiven myself. I couldn’t have let him go back to that terrible motel he was living in. It should be condemned.” She pursed her lips. “You can rent rooms by the hour! The fact that he annoyed Hal with his presence was a bonus.”   
  


Despite the seriousness of their conversation, he managed to chuckle. “Anything that annoys Hal is a bonus.” 

Alice sighed. “I just liked that he wanted me around, FP. It was nice.” She fiddled with a packet of sugar. “I don’t want to ruin that, but, you’re right. He did lead me to fearing for my life, and his little friends did con me out of two thousand dollars, so maybe I should go to the police.” 

“I’ll go with you if you want,” he offered. “I wouldn’t make you go alone.” 

“What about your job?” Alice asked. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.” 

“It’s all right, Alice. It’ll make sure everything’s sorted.”   
  


“You will?”   
  


“Yeah. Give me a couple minutes to talk to Pop, okay?”

“You want me to stay here?” 

He nodded. “Yeah. Just stay there.” 

* * *

The Sheriff’s station was a hub of activity, even more so than usual, and Alice furrowed her brow in confusion at the sight in front of them. The amount of emergency vehicles that crowded the entrance both confused her and put chills of fear down her spine. 

“What the hell happened?” FP asked her, his eyes wide. “Do you know?” 

“I’ve been with you all day,” she reminded him. “I pride myself as being all knowing, this is true, but, in this case, I am completely oblivious.”   
  


“Are there normally this many ambulances here?”    
  


“I don’t think so,” she answered. “Should we even get out of the car?” 

“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I think that I’ll leave the coat in the car, though.” 

“You were going to wear your Serpents jacket in to see the Sheriff?” She managed a slight smile. “Don’t do things like that FP. It will only get you in trouble.” 

He shrugged off the jacket and tossed it in the backseat of her station wagon, the action leaving him in his Pops uniform. 

“Let’s get this over with,” he said, his tone gruff. “When we get out of here, I’ll change your locks.” 

“I might need a brand new door,” she admitted. “Jughead and his friends, they did a number on it. I mean, I’m not mad, or anything.”   
  


“You’re not?” 

She shook her head. “No, FP, they might have saved our lives. How could I be mad at them over something so foolish as a door?” She sighed. “Look, if you want, they can help put the new one up. I’d want to pay them, though.” 

Alice had meant what she had said when she had addressed the Serpents at the high school earlier that week. She was done disavowing the Southside. It was only a door, after all. Of the things that Alice had to cry over, her front door was rather far down the list, behind her failing marriage and the fact that Polly was potentially in a cult, but had definitely named her children names that made the names FP had saddled his children with seem perfectly lovely and normal. 

No. It was sad for her to admit, but the door was the least of her issues.

“What happened here?” Alice asked as they approached the walkway that led to the barracks’ entrance. A maroon colored trail was evident, and the substance led to the front door. 

“Ma’am, you can’t go any further,” a deputy whom Alice could vaguely place informed her. “It’s an active crime scene.” 

“What happened?” Alice demanded. “A bloodbath?”

“Your husband, Mrs. Cooper,” he said. “We made a mistake when we stopped the investigation.”   
  


“Hal was shot?” Alice couldn’t really bring herself to care. She just had no desire to care for him while he recuperated, if he had. 

“No, ma’am,” he said. “He’s the Black Hood.”

“What?” 

“He’s been trying to cleanse the town of sin,” he elaborated. 

“Why is there all of this blood?” Alice asked, though her tone was hesitant. She really didn’t want to know, but she felt that she needed to be properly informed. “Is he...is he dead?” 

“Maybe I should just take you home,” FP suggested.

“To the house that I lived in with a would-be murderer?” Alice demanded, unable to hide the panic that she felt at the idea. “You yourself said that you didn’t think that the house was safe because of Chic and those hoodlums, now you think that I should go home?” 

“Alice, I just meant that it might not be the best thing for you to be here right now--”

“He’s not exactly a ‘would-be’ murderer, either,” the deputy added. “Mrs. Cooper, you should go home. You don’t need to see this.” 

“My name is Alice,” she hissed. “Fine. Take me home, FP. Something tells me that I don’t want to know.” 

“Are you sure?” He asked, his voice softer than it had been towards her since they were children. “Alice, if you don’t feel safe--”

She shook her head. “You said you’d get me a new door right?” 

“Yeah, of course, we can do that right now.” 

She nodded. “You said that we take care of our own,” she whispered. “Did you mean it?” 

She allowed him to place his arm around her and lead her in the direction of her station wagon, while she tried her best to maintain her composure. Hal had been awful to her over the years, but she’d never thought of him as a murderer. They’d just been a couple with issues, at least that’s what she’d thought they were. Sure, he’d had a temper, but she’d deserved it. She’d been a terrible wife, after all, and hadn’t even managed to give him a son, when she’d managed to bear FP’s with little trouble. Hal had always resented her for that. 

But it was a leap to go from being a terrible husband to being a murderer. At least, she’d assumed that it was. Now she was less certain. 

“Keys,” FP muttered. “And yeah, Al, I meant it. Even if we hadn’t spoken. I would have been there for you. You really think I would have made you deal with the fact that your estranged husband is a serial killer on your own?” 

“Why not?” She asked as she settled herself in the passenger’s side. “Everyone else would.” 

He started the car. “Yeah, well, I’m not everyone else. They’re all bastards.” 

“Even Fred?” 

“Fred? He’s the worst of ‘em all.” 

Talking about Fred was an acceptable distraction, Alice decided. “I thought the two of you were friends again,” she said. “Aren’t you?” 

“Gave me a job as his foreman to repay Hermione Lodge’s debt to the Serpents, which I only agreed to because I wanted to prove to the boy that I wasn’t a complete fuck up,” he said. “Didn’t even bother to protest that social worker saying that Jughead would be better off on the Southside. Now he’s been shot and he’s supposedly running for Mayor as an alternative to Hermione Lodge, but, he’s still attached to the Sodale project, so, what is it? What’s his angle?” He shook his head. “And he’s been telling Archie that it’s okay to treat Jughead like shit. You want someone to blame for me rejoining the Serpents? Why don’t you ask Mary to tell you how she refused to be my attorney, which essentially forced Jug into soliciting the services of Penny Peabody.”

“She did what?” 

“It’s not exactly a secret that she considers me to be a lost cause, Al. You know what she thinks of people like us. From the Southside. Hell, she’s in town, isn’t she?” 

Alice pursed her lips. “She is, unfortunately. Why?” 

“She’d probably sign Hal for a client, knowing her,” he said. “I’d be thanking god that I was getting a divorce, if I were you.”

Alice sighed. She had little good to say about Mary, and she opened her mouth to tell FP exactly what she thought of her, only to be interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone. She pulled the phone out of her handbag to see Elizabeth’s image on the screen.

“I’m sorry, FP. I have to take this.” 

“Don’t apologize, Alice.” 

“Hello,?” Alice tried to maintain her sense of composure. If Elizabeth was unaware of Harold’s misdeeds, Alice wanted to keep it that way. “Elizabeth, honey, what is it?” 

“Can you pick me up from school? Me and Jughead?” Elizabeth’s tone was practically childlike. 

“Why, sweetheart? Did something happen?” 

“No, we’re okay,” Betty said. “You mean, you haven’t heard?” 

“About what?” Alice lied. “I won’t get mad, Elizabeth. Just tell me.” 

“Polly and Dad,” she whispered. “They showed up at school today. I guess Cheryl had told Polly that she should see her practice ‘painting the stage red’ -- oh god -- and they decided, they decided to make it a literal act -- oh my god, Mom.” 

“Are you saying your sister is also the Black Hood?” Alice asked, and she bit back a sigh. “Fine, Elizabeth. FP and I will come and get the two of you, just take a deep breath and give us a moment to get there.” She glanced over at FP. “The kids need us to get them, Jonesy.”

“She’s dead, Mom,” Betty wept. “Dad killed her when she wouldn’t let him go near the babies.” 

“Of course he did,” Alice said with a sigh. She had very little energy to expend on mourning Polly, who had of course been her child, but who had truly been her father’s daughter, including joining him on what appeared to be an insane, mutually hypocritical, quest to cleanse Riverdale of sin. Especially since she had an hysterical child to deal with, and two infants that she had no desire to parent. “I don’t suppose that you think Penelope Blossom would--”

“It was the three of them,” Betty informed her. “Why? Don’t you want them? They’re Polly’s--” The panic in Elizabeth’s voice was rising steadily. 

“I’m not going to throw them to the wolves, young lady,” she said through gritted teeth. She was getting a headache. “Obviously, I have no choice but to keep them, in spite of the fact that I made it explicitly clear that I had a distinct lack of desire to do so while your sister was pregnant. I will be there shortly. Goodbye, Elizabeth.”

Alice prided herself on her impeccable self control when she talked herself out of smashing her phone to pieces due to her current level of rage.

“Goddammit,” she said. “I told Polly that I wanted nothing to do with raising those babies, FP, and she and my useless excuse of a husband still found another way to spite my wishes, and because the bastard killed her because she wasn’t evil enough for him, as usual it’s me that gets fucked.” She fumbled around in her glove compartment for her emergency pack of cigarettes and a half empty book of matches, and she lit up a smoke before continuing her rant. “I was  _ going _ to ask if caring for our own extended to maybe you and Jughead moving in together with me, since maybe that way I’d feel like I could be safe again, and--”   
  


“All you’d have to do is ask, Al,” he told her. “It would sure as hell beat the trailer park.”

“Not with the twins, it wouldn’t,” she whispered. “I couldn’t ask you to set your whole life aside in order to help me care for Polly’s mistake. It’s sweet of you to offer, but I’m the one who should have to suffer, not you. This is my problem. I can’t expect you to sign up for eighteen years of de-facto parenting twins named -- of all things -- Juniper and Dagwood.”

“Why not? Isn’t it my fault that their father died?” 

She glanced over at him. “I’m not going to punish you for your bar being the venue in which Jason Blossom met his demise. I wish you’d killed him. Hell, I wish that I had killed him.” She sighed. “Wait. What did you say about Penny Peabody?”

“She’s been blackmailing Jug and Archie. Making them do drops and shit. I told them that I could handle--”   
  


“Fine,” she hissed. “Quid pro quo.”

* * *

[Several Months Later]

“What is this?” Alice demanded, her tone filled with disdain, as she eyed her visitors with barely hidden revulsion. The fact that Hiram and Hermione looked distinctly uncomfortable to be in her presence filled her increasingly deadened heart with joy. “Have you come here to mock me?” 

“Far from it,” Hiram said. “We’ve come to the conclusion that owning any part of the Register is a liability. I mean, honestly, Hermione and I weren’t complicit in Hal’s crimes, but we can’t count on the public’s favor like you can. People can offer you pity. Lodge Industries cannot afford this additional level of scrutiny.” 

“It’s unseemly,” Hermione added. “Imagine what it would look like if the citizens of Riverdale thought one of their Mayoral candidates was complicit in Harold’s little web of pointless bloodshed? It would be...unseemly. Not to mention, what would people think of poor Hiram? As it is, people are so angry about that Sodale project.” 

“So, we spoke about it,” Hiram continued, his tone smooth. “And we realized that the solution was simple. Just give it back to you. At first we just wanted to tear up the gentlemen’s agreement, but Hermione pointed out that you recently lost a child, and so we’ve sweetened the deal with the one time offer.” 

Alice sighed, and she peered at the brandished check. She didn’t need the money. It would have been rude to refuse. The last thing she needed was another headache from the Lodges.

“Fine,” she muttered. “I’ll take the deal.” 

“Wonderful,” Hermione said. “Well, we’ve done what we came to do, right, Hiram?” 

“Yes,” he said. “We are sorry about Polly, Alice,” he added. “I’m painfully aware of what having a child ripped from you feels like, and --”

“Hiram, Polly is dead because she decided to become a murderer like her father,” Alice said flatly. “I feel confident that our situations are in no way comparable.” She sighed. “I wanted the paper back. Thank you for that, even though it is solely due to your own lack of desire to be associated with Harold. There is no need for us to communicate further.” 

“You’re right, Alice,” Hermione said, and she put her hand on Hiram’s arm. “We should get going.”   
  


“You’re right, Hermione,” he said. “We need to try to reason with Mary. It looks  _ terrible _ that someone even vaguely connected to Sodale would agree to be Hal’s lawyer, given what he did to Fred…”

“Oh, absolutely,” Alice said, as she nodded in agreement. “What would people think, Hiram? It would do terrible things to your reputation and that of Lodge Industries. Didn’t your company partner with Fred’s in the hope it would increase your legitimacy? Aren’t they thought to be legitimate?” 

“Thought to be?” 

“What? I was just stating your reasoning.” Alice had fixed a sweet smile on her lips. “You thought them to be legitimate. Compared to the two of you, well, I’m sure that they are,” she continued, her tone breezy. “I just would have dug a bit deeper into Fred’s perfect-as-apple-pie exterior. You never know when the pie’s apples have rotted.” She paused, and then continued. “Well, I do. I can see why you’d find it difficult.” 

“What are you talking about?” Hiram demanded. “Alice--”

“Oh, nothing,” she purred. “Maybe I just don’t like him. I need to go back inside. It would be cruel to FP to leave him in charge of the twins for very long. Ta-ta. Thanks for the check.”

Alice went back into her house, feeling no shame for her decision to fill the Lodges’ heads with disconcerting thoughts about Fred and Mary, given that she had little to be fond of about either couple. As far as she was concerned,they were two sides of the same, terrible, coin, and anything to sow discontent in their lives was a worthy use of her time. 

“What were you talking about?” FP asked, his voice low, in deference to the infants, who were napping in their cots. “Do I need to send Hermione another snake?”

“Cut me a check to get them out of the paper,” Alice told him, and she gave him a kiss, before she showed him the check to prove her point. “In return, I may have introduced doubt into their minds about our supposedly wholesome next door neighbor.” 

“Good ol’ Dudley Do Right?” He drawled. “What a shame you burst that bubble.”

“I merely poked at it a bit.” 

“You’re a wicked, wicked, woman, Alice,” he purred. “What a shame that your ex-husband could never appreciate this side of you.”

“Well, we both know how poor Harold was flawed,” she said as she sat down on the couch beside him. “It must have been his simple mind and his ever so traumatic childhood that caused him to both not appreciate me as a wife and caused him to snap and ‘accidentally’ kill his own child, that Blossom girl, the child predator Fred wouldn’t have arrested, not to mention  _ nearly _ killing several teenagers, the former Mayor, our Sheriff, and Fred himself.” She rolled her eyes. “Does Mary actually believe the shit she says? How absolutely ridiculous of her to try to pin Harold’s psychopathy on being unable to work through childhood trauma. Normal people don’t go on a shooting spree to cleanse the town of sin. They drink too much and enter terrible marriages.” 

“Well, you know what she’s like,” he said. 

“What they’re both like, you mean. Part of me wants to leave. To take the kids and get the hell away from here.” 

“What’s stopping us?” FP asked, and he shifted so that they were closer together, taking his hand in hers. “Why can’t we get the hell away from here?” 

“The trial, for starters. Funny how I’m expected to fill the role of her grieving mother when she got what she deserved for conspiring with her father and joining in on his insane campaign.”

Alice had reluctantly adjusted to the fact that the state had had no choice but to make her the twins guardian, in spite of her bringing up her Southside pedigree in an attempt to dissuade them. Betty had steadfastly refused to allow her to seek out any of the Blossoms, and what she had first felt was an admirable defense of her sister’s wishes she was now suspecting was a cover up, given that neither twin looked particularly Blossomesque, if one discounted the red hair. Unfortunately she feared that more than gentle prodding would be the cause of Elizabeth having a nervous breakdown. That didn’t mean that she enjoyed being in charge of them, or sitting at Harold’s trial, pretending to care about his fate. 

They were going to throw the book at him anyways, despite Mary’s best efforts, so the fact that her presence was expected was downright insulting. If the state wasn’t even going to let her adopt the babies (not that she’d particularly wanted to), why did they expect her to care that the twins had lost their biological mother? Alice had had to retrieve the infants at that stupid farm, for god’s sake. All Polly had ever done was neglect them.

“Well, after the trial, then,” he suggested. “We could go then.” 

“What about our children?” Alice asked, as he looped his arm around her shoulders, and she temporarily conceded to relax. “I don’t mean the twins. Do we tear Jughead and Betty away from their lives? What about JB?” She stroked his knuckles absentmindedly as she spoke. 

“What about her? I assumed she’d come with us. You’d leave her?” 

“No,” she said, and she shifted in order to face him. “I wasn’t suggesting leaving her, honey. I just think that it would upset her if we didn’t ask her if she wanted to move, given all that she’s been through.”

“I guess you’re right. I don’t want to fuck her over any more than she’s already been,” he said. “I’m not good at this, babe, you know that. I’m trying.” 

“I know you are,” she said, and she shifted so that she was sat on his lap. “And you’re good with the twins I appreciate that, even though I wish we weren’t still stuck with them because of Polly’s poor choices.” 

“Polly’s choices are not on you, Al,” he said. “She was a very troubled girl. You can’t blame yourself.”   
  


“Yes I can. This wouldn’t have happened if I was a better mom.” 

“You’re not a bad mom.”   
  


“That’s easy for you to say,” she muttered. “I married him, FP. He forced me to go to that horrible place to have my baby and I hated him for it, and I let him do it to her.” She sniffled. “Why didn’t I refuse? Why didn’t I fight him?” 

“You were sixteen,” he said. “You were a scared kid. You didn’t stand a chance against him, or the Coopers. We were stupid kids from the Southside, who were easy targets.” 

“I regret it every day,” she admitted. “So many things. For myself, for my girls. When I think of all the times they convinced me to take him back--”   
  


“You wanted them to have a family. Hell, I didn’t I do it too? With Gladys? I want you to be happy. I know that it upsets you to be in charge of the twins, but what if the same thing that had happened to Charles had happened to them?”

“I know.” She sighed.

Contrary to popular belief, Alice did have a heart, and she didn’t want the twins to be festering in a convent until their eighteenth birthday. Even though she loathed that Elizabeth wanted next to nothing to do with the children that she had insisted Alice keep, what else could she have done? People thought that she was actually mourning Polly, in spite of her efforts to impart the reality of her opinions on her fellow residents of Riverdale. It was tiring.

“If we left, would people expect me to give a fuck about her? Pretending that she’s such a damn saint?” Polly had terrorized Alice’s living child, and saddled her with twin problems without a care in the world. “I could, you know, more on?”   
  


“I don’t see what would stop you. I don’t care if you mourn her. You have to know that.”

“I know that you don’t. It’s everyone else. They look at me like I’m horrible for not playing the role of a grieving mother. Like Polly’s death erases the evil within her, the hurt she helped cause. People are dead because of her! Her death doesn’t erase that. She helped terrorize her sister and I will be paying for Elizabeth’s therapy for who even knows how long, and she and her father went on a shooting spree at a high school! People died, FP. Sure, some of them might have deserved some sort of justice, but not that type. She instigated that shooting that day, and people are portraying her as some innocent flower, why? Because she was a pretty, blonde, Vixen? And Elizabeth doesn’t help.” Alice was on a roll. She’d been set off by the fact that she had been yet again subjected to pity from people she loathed for someone she wished was still alive so that she could answer to her crimes. “After all the shit Polly did to her specifically, let’s leave aside what she did to me, and to those innocent children -- putting pigs blood on her locker! Helping her father terrorize and stalk her! If I hear one more word out of her mouth about her blaming me for it, for any of it, saying that she snapped after I sent her to the nuns, I will remind her that Polly was the one who burnt down the elementary school, and she and her friends, and Betty’s dear father, purposely pinned it on Jughead.”

“You’re kidding,” Betty said in response. Alice glanced briefly in her direction. FP wrapped his arm around her, and she curled close to him. Years of being married to Hal had made Alice entirely too hyper aware of her surroundings and of those of others. Even the fact that he was in jail did nothing to comfort her in her own home. “Mom?”

“What, Elizabeth?” 

“Why are you making up lies about Polly?”   
  


Alice raised a brow. “Lies? You think your sister isn’t as culpable as your father?” 

“Dad killed her--”

“Independent of that, Elizabeth. The list of misdeeds your sister committed are numerous. I can accept that you miss her, but sanctification? I’m tired of it.”

Betty blinked. “She’s my sister.” 

“Your sister who wanted to kill you,” FP said, as he ran his hand down Alice’s back. “Your father wanted you to join him, Betty, but Polly wanted you to die.” 

“It’s true,” Alice added, though reluctantly. “I didn’t want to tell you because she’s dead. I don’t know what she wanted--”

“I do,” Betty blurted out. “The twins, they’re not Jason’s. They’re Archie’s. I didn’t want you to give them away, so I didn’t tell you.”

“Archibald Andrews?” Alice questioned. Betty nodded. “Care to elaborate, Elizabeth?” 

Betty had become rather entranced by the living room carpet and seemed rather reluctant to look either Alice or FP in the eyes, let alone speak, which did not thrill her. Nothing about this discovery did. 

“I guess that Jason and Ms. Grundy were having an affair, and Polly caught them. She was upset that Jason was cheating on her, and Archie was upset because he thought he and Ms. Grundy were exclusive. I guess one thing led to another and, well…”

“Well?” Alice demanded. “What would you be possessed to hide this from us, Elizabeth Cooper? Don’t you think that Archibald deserves to know he’s a father? Didn’t you learn from what happened to me?” 

“Polly said it was none of his business. That it was better for everyone to think that the twins were Jason’s. Why would betray her last wishes?” 

“Because, frankly, it’s bullshit. I couldn’t tell FP that I had had our baby because your ass of a father convinced me that I would be able to keep my son if we got married before he sent me away, which enabled him to completely control my actions. I never got a say. Screw her last wishes. She had no right, and he had the right to know.” 

“Why? Because you don’t want them?” 

“That has nothing to do with this. I can’t believe you don’t think that Archie should know about this, Elizabeth. I raised you better. Come on, FP. I think we have to have a chat with Fred. I only hope that the Lodges are gone.” 

The last thing Alice wanted was to deal with either of them for the second time that day. 

“What?” Betty demanded. “Why are you bringing Mr. Jones?” 

“Really Elizabeth? Mr. Jones. The man is your stepfather. The least you could do is call him FP.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“What do you need, Alice?” Fred asked his wife when he opened the door, and FP bristled at the obvious tone displayed, before Fred realized that he was there and gave him a bright smile. “Hey, buddy,” he added, as his gaze locked on FP’s. “You want a beer?

“I’m sober,” he told him, his tone short. “This isn’t a social call anyways, is it, Al?” 

“We’re here to speak to you about Archibald,” Alice said in a tone that could have cut glass. “It has come to our attention that he’s been neglecting his parental duties.” 

“What are you talking about, Alice?”

“I thought he was just being respectful,” she said. “Respecting our distance.” FP tightened his arm around her waist. “Giving us space to grieve for my daughter. It’s been almost six months, Fred. He knows where we live. Surely the time has come for him to take the children.”   
  


“What the hell is she talking about?” Fred asked him. “Has she cracked up?” 

“No, Fred, she hasn’t cracked up,” FP told him. “I realize that your parenting of Red leaves a bit to be desired but how clear does Alice have to be? Archie is the father of Polly’s twins, whether you want him to be or not, and either he takes them, or we sue for child support.”

Fred blanched. “You wouldn’t.”

“Why wouldn’t we? We’d be entitled.”

“Mary wouldn’t allow it,” he said. “You make too much money.”   
  


Alice scoffed. “It doesn’t matter what Mary wants,” she said. “Our caseworker made it clear that we were only the guardians of the twins because of a lack of a more suitable family placement. She made it clear that our pedigree made us...less than ideal. It was very sad. I cried.”   
  


FP thought it was best not to mention that Alice’s tears had been due to the fact that their combined paths hadn’t led them to being denied custody of the twins, and he settled for a hand on her back, and a look of concern on his face. 

“We just thought you’d rather hear it from us before they showed up on your doorstep,” he offered. “Polly and Archie had kept their relationship a secret, after all.” 

“Are you serious?” 

“Fred,” Alice said. “Do you think this is something that I would joke about? Where is that odious child?”

“That’s none of your business,” Fred huffed. “Hal told me that he’d had things handled, that Polly’s mistakes would only ruin her future, not Archie’s. That Mary and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“What a pity that Harold undid those efforts by killing her,” Alice said flatly. “It’s almost like it’s time for Archibald to learn about consequences.” 

“Alice--”

“I warned you, Fred,” she hissed. “Come on, Jonesy. I want to enjoy the time with my grandchildren before they’re brought to their father’s. Shouldn’t we?”

Alice shot him a dazzling grin. Fred looked like he wanted to become ill.

“I think that’s a great idea, baby,” he told her. “I think Fred has to have a talk with his son. Don’t you?”

“I do indeed,” she purred.

“See you soon, Freddy!”

FP sheparded Alice down the steps, determined to spare everyone on Elm Street her explosion. Fred definitely deserved it, he just wasn’t sure his hearing could take a hit.

“What an asshole,” she snapped. “Conspiring with Harold? Trying to get you to drink?”

“It’s kinda his thing,” he said. 

“He can go to hell. They deserve those children.”


End file.
